Led Zeppelin's Best Album

Presence. It gets a mauling. People moaned when there were acoustic numbers, then when there were none they moaned about the absence on Presence. No radio hits here really. This was and is deep cut stuff. Their Wish You Were Here to Zep IV's Dark Side. Throw in Station To Station and we have a trifecta of what great 70s rock was really about.

Achilles Last Stand with that minor 6 intro and the journey and sections throughout. Outstanding drumming and restraind solos as Jimmy Page applies his art. The reason I lik listening to Zeppelin is listening to this guy play (which he does very well here). For Your Life is what happens to You Shook Me (also brilliant). Exceptional solo.

Royal Orleans. Rhythm section madness as Plant negotiates the dynamics. Bonzo exceptional as the band, under pressure at the time, delivers material that even if a sog was not great is easily disguised by their stunning ability to play the hell out of anything.

Nobody's Fault But Mine. Unlike Whole Lotta Love only the lyrics are nicked - Zeppelin took all of Bukka White's riff (his arrangement for the number) and Willie Dixon's lyrics and "wrote" that one. (White's was on utube for a while but seems to have vanished. Worse than their "writing" In My Time Of Dying  ten years or so after Bob Dylan first covered it. But other than that, for me unforgivable blemish, deliberate plagiarism Nobody's Fault is bliss. Here Page has a killer riff. Never fouled up in concert it is a sublime piece of how blues can really be progressed. Stunning solo and the band are just fantastic.

Next up Hots On For Nowhere and Candy Store Rock are the only weaker moments. Good performances on songs that are is search for a melody or hook. Nice rhythmic approach but that's it... Ok but needed some more thought.

I know Page Plant made Tea For One into a medley with SIBLY but really they are very separate. Another ultra cool opening riff and then of all things it slows down to a crawl. The ride cymbal guides us through this desperate blues. The lyrics are complemented by the deep soul of Page's guitar work which both understated and sublime in it's haze. It's long but it is worth every moment.

More solos, more performance, more spontaneity more cohesion, no stupid lyrics (That Going to California moment). No excessive vocal ad libs that annoy some. Epics standing toe to toe with the best of the others, though really only Kashmir is equal. Levee and Stairway are sublime and close and Dazed is possibly a good source of many ideas they get for this. No pop songs, this is hard core rock at it's most uncompromising. It is dripping in atmosphere as well.

Context and comparison.

So a couple of tunes probably needed a little more thought (I am perfectly happy to be wrong here), doesn't take away from the most complete album statement. Parts of Zep 1 (most of side 1) couple of moments off Zep 2, most of Zep 3 and 4, 3/4 of HoTH Just want to say their choice of No Quarter was the wrong one. The Electric Ladyland recordings are close to the concert ones at 10 minutes and sound way more cool and interesting. A bit of editing of guitars and take three is the one.. Most of PG also (In The Light a little under cooked, like Candy and Hots. Seaside is nice but a little featureless for such a slow number - go directly to Tea For One. If we forgive Plant that most wretched of 70s rock lyric topic for Sick Again we have to accept the same drivel on For Your Life. But his performance of both particularly the latter is outstanding and hides the drivel - rock stars moaning about groupies and cocaine. Such hard, miserable lives. A tear.

Side 2 or tracks 4, 5, and 6 may be the best side of rock ever released for Graffiti which, if spit into different albums might have given Presence runs for their money. Close but the performance and cohesion of Presence gives it the edge. But that side 2 of Graffiti...

Like the multiple sectioned performances of Dazed And Confused in concert and probably No Quarter live this is the sort of thing where no one can ever get anywhere near Led Zeppelin. Though Rainbow came close with Long Live Rock and Roll as Blackmore tried to do his version of Graffiti. Lady Of the Lake is his "rewrite" of the Wanton Song. Now if that one had turned up on Presence instead...

Descending scales as found in the intro to Stairway to Heaven have been around forever. Which is why the whole Spirit lawsuit is a joke. Here, 17th century and in the public domain for a few hundred years:

Or another 400 year old folk song as played by The Modern Folk Quartet in 1963

^Plant was describing (in veiled terms) what the band had been through to that point--  by '71 they were gods, had been thoroughly battered by the press, and they all hated flying on airplanes which they had to do in order to tour.   Huge success and Peter Grant's relentless tour & recording schedule didn't help.

But yeah, those lyrics are far from his best.

“Going to California” would be a great Zeppelin song for me except the absolutely stupid lyrical passage:

The Dark Elf wrote: Interesting results so far. Fairly evenly spaced. I would like to hear the justification for the one person who selected In Through The Out Door. Granted, everything is subjective, but the original question was what was the best Zeppelin album, not your favorite. If one were being objective, I'm not sure how you could quantify ITTOD as the best album Zeppelin ever released.

No accounting for taste. I find Presence and ITTOD to be fairly boring myself but my guess is someone voted for it as a joke.

Went with Zoso....mostly due to 3 tracks...Battle, Stairway and Levee....like the first 7 though and almost went with the first due to it's bombastic debut. Also think Houses to be very good other than those two strange diversions into 'funk'.

PG would have made a killer single...too many 'xtra' tracks  for me to say it's their best.